A man who was caught in possession of thousands of images of babies and children being raped and sexually abused, after sharing indecent images via Twitter, has been sent to jail.

An intelligence report from US organisation the National Centre of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), led to the arrest of Paul Turner, who was subsequently found to be in possession of indecent images and movies of children, ranging from new-born to 12 years old.

The 28-year-old was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on Friday March 11 to 20 months in prison, after previously pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent photos and two counts of distributing indecent images.

Brian Stork, prosecuting, told the court 3,280 images were found in Turner’s possession, 393 in the most extreme Category A, 535 in Category B and 2,352 in Category C.

The NCMEC report linked police to the defendant’s address in Hillspur Close, Guildford.

“That report stated that on August 26 2014, just after 6pm, the user and IP address associated with the defendant’s address had uploaded four Category C indecent images of children to the internet using Twitter,” Mr Stork said.

“The same report noted that on September 2 2014, just before 6.30pm, the use of the same IP address uploaded a further two Category C indecent images of children via Twitter.

“The police attended the address, spoke first to the parents and then to this defendant, who was arrested.

“He was cautioned and, on arrest, the defendant said this: ‘I do have saved images on my computer’.

“That laptop was seized and it was examined.”

As well as the computer, memory cards and an iPod were found to have indecent images.

Mr Stork told the court young children were in ‘obvious pain and distress’.

The court heard he had 900 followers on his social media account at one point.

“The defendant was interviewed and, in effect, made full admissions,” Mr Stork said.

“He confirmed during the course of his interview that he had periodically deleted images he had previously downloaded.”

The court heard he had no previous convictions.

“I have to accept at the outset the images are the most disgusting and horrendous you can imagine,” said Julian Hunt, defending Turner.

“A month after being arrested he contacted the Lucy Faithful Foundation.

“It does seem probation feel they can work with him.

“He admitted literally on arrest with the police.”

Mr Hunt said the defendant was remorseful.

Sentencing, recorder Jane Humphreys QC, said: “It is difficult to know what is worse, a child of nearly 12 who would have been quite old to know the depravity taking place, or a young baby injured in such activity.

“It is my view the deleting of this material along with deleting of Twitter accounts was an attempt to conceal your disgraceful behaviour.”

Taking into account his early guilty plea and remorse, Turner was sentenced to 20 months in prison, of which he will serve half behind bars.

He was made subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £100 and will be placed on the Sexual Offenders’ Register for 15 years.